Stems slender and lax, 2–7 dm, loosely to densely tufted on a compact system of rather slender rhizomes, somewhat aphyllopodic; lvs ± flat, 1.5–3 mm wide; spikes mostly 2–5, approximate, erect or closely ascending, sessile or short-pedunculate, relatively small, the terminal one gynaecandrous, 6–14 mm, the lateral ones pistillate, shorter, seldom over 10 mm; bract subtending the lowest spike sheathless or nearly so, shorter to longer than the infl; pistillate scales purplish-black or brownish-black, prominently white-hyaline-margined, to as long as the perigynia and usually fully as wide; perigynia coppery-yellowish or light green to dark purple, elliptic, commonly rather narrowly so,to ± obovate, 2.1–3 mm, distended and nearly filled by the trigonous achene, empty only just beneath the short (0.3–0.4 mm) generally blackish beak, 2-ribbed, otherwise only inconspicuously or scarcely nerved, minutely cellular-reticulate; 2n=54, 56. Streambanks, seepage areas, and moist meadows; circumboreal, s. in Amer. to Que., Wis., Minn., and Utah. (C. halleri; C. media; C. vahlii)
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